ple, with its war against the wishes and the interests of the na tion, openly made, by rejection of the most popular laws, the administration was popular. This is a new problem in politics, that calls for solution.

363. This solution is to be found in the new relation which had been created between the President and the people, upon which we have already had occasion to comment. The legis lative power of the President, is confined by the Constitution to the exercise of the veto, in which it was never contemplated that the President should seek or employ the expres sion of popular favour, to support himself against the legitimate expression of the national will, through its constitutional organ, the Congress of the United States. A new power was erected, in the assemblages of party, which, directed by presidential influence, was to have a controlling influence over the action of Congress, and justify all the measures of the administration, however hostile to the measures of the legislative body, to which the President held himself at liberty at all times to appeal. Did Congress endeavour to improve the condition of the country by wise and liberal appropriation of the public funds, the President nullified its intentions by refusing his assent to its acts, reproached it with corruption and extravagance, and appealed to his party, as to the people, for the justification of his power, and his indecorum. Did Congress pass an act for preserving and regulating the currency of the country, for the collection and disbursement of the public funds, by the reorganization of an approved and faithful fiscal agent, the President thwarted its will, by the rejection of the law, and appealed to the people, whose voice he found in the clamours of instructed and pensioned official subordinates, and in the echoes of hireling presses. Did Congress pass a law for internal improvement, with the sanction of the President, he claimed the right to suspend its operation whenever he should discover that it was not compatible with his views of expediency, relying upon the support of the same surreptitious, self-created organs of the people. Did long established treaties and laws require the interposition of the executive arm, to protect the Indian nations against encroachment and violence, the President refused to perform the duty, claimed the right to declare the treaties, and the laws enacted by his predecessors, unconstitutional, and to suspend their obligation; averring that, his sense of their constitutionality must overpower that of the Legislature and the Judiciary;

and that, he was bound to consider no laws as constitutional, but as he should understand them. Does the Senate reject nominations to office, on account of the insufficiency of the nominees, or the impropriety of the selections, the President appoints them to the same or other stations, by his own bare will, does he recommend a rejected nominee to the second office in the gift of the people, and thus bring the power of his own high station to the control of the polls, he finds justification for all these acts of lawless power, in what he ventures to call the voice of the people.

364. With equal indecorum and injustice, President Jackson reproached his immediate predecessor with having brought the patronage of the Federal Government into conflict with the freedom of elections;" but, supposing an impossibility, that the gross interference of the federal officers in the elections of every part of the country, not to have his sanction, what shall be said of his effort to influence the public voice in the election of Vice President, whom the Constitution has provided, in certain contingency, to succeed him? This glaring perversion of the duties of his office, is thus, shamelessly, blazened to the world in the columns of the Globe.

After enumerating the political offences charged upon Mr. Van Buren, in which the participation of the President is avowed, the Editor proceeds: "Could charges more dishonourable to the President, or more wounding to his feelings, be invented or promulgated? How must 'the Conqueror of Napoleon's Conquerors' feel, when charged with humbling his country at the foot of the British throne?' How must one who is born to command, whose own energetic mind, now, gives impulse to all around him, as it has ever done, feel, when charged with subserviency to those whom he directs? The point of the shaft which has been aimed at his patriotism and honour, is certainly blunted, by the consideration, that it was sped by a coalition of political aspirants who are unable to conceal their selfish objects under the simulated veil of American feeling,' and mock morality. But the blow would be felt by him in all the force with which it was aimed, if his friends and countrymen did not step forward to ward it off-if, when assailed by open enemies and traitorous friends, the American people, and those whom he has ably defended in war, and faithfully served in peace, do not rally around and sustain him, he must feel, that honest exertions in the public service, are no shield against heart

less intrigue, and may, with truth, repeat the_remark, 'Republics are ungrateful.' His re-election to the presidency will be no reparation for the attack upon his honour. If the people re-elect him, and at the same time condemn his acts, he will feel that he re-enters upon the arduous duties of Chief Magistrate dishonoured." *** "The people will not permit this state of things. The friends of the President, whether they personally like Mr. Van Buren or not, will rally round him and do justice to his motives and his acts. By making Mr. Van Buren, Vice President, they will declare to the world, that in public opinion, it is not the President, but the Vice President, and half the Senate, who have dishonoured the country."

Will it be asked, is the President responsible for the remarks of the editor of a newspaper? We ask another question in reply-would any President, to whom such language and such principles were not welcome, have the one spoken of him, and the other ascribed to him? Nay, we will ask yet, another-to what President, from Washington to Jackson, the latter excluded, could such principles have been ascribed? The extract we have given, embraces the very spirit of the administration. Born to command, all are beneath him, all are bound to obey. And it is this selfishness which guides and directs every movement of the administration.

365. But, to return to the new power which the President has invoked for his justification, and by the aid of which he defies and laughs to scorn the co-ordinate powers of the State, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. In his veto upon cight bills of Congress, he referred himself to the people, the party, for support; but in none of them more clearly than in his message rejecting the act incorporating the Bank. At the close of that message, he remarked, "I have, now, done my duty to my country. If sustained by my fellow citizens, I shall be grateful and happy; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel me, ample grounds for contentment and peace." And that we may have no doubt of the effect designed by the appeal, he himself gives it to us. In his memorable communication to his Cabinet, on the 18th September, 1833; he exclaims, "Can it now be said that the question of a recharter of the Bank was not decided at the election which ensued?"

The result of this course is to extinguish all other powers in the Government, save those of the President and the people,—

no; of the President and the party; and in effect, upon the principles on which that party is managed, as we have heretofore explained, to vest all power in the President himself. Already is the Senate denounced as a factious and aristocratic body, an excrescence upon the Constitution, controlling the President in the exercise of his legitimate functions, whilst, in truth, they do but perform their own. Already has the House of Representatives, for refusing to execute the President's behests, been stigmatized as base and corrupt,—and following out the course which has thus been designated, we may expect to hear both bodies condemned, as useless and expensive, whose services may be dispensed with, by the substi tution of the President and the PEOPLE-or the PARTY.

366. Through the influence of the office-holders and of the press, the party had, indeed, made a deep impression on the people. The measures of their representatives were misrepresented or concealed, an army of mercenary dependants, spread over the whole country, in its cities, its villages, and even its hidden vallies, infecting the whole community with the taint of their opinions and their servility; our politics and our political institutions were corrupted in their very fountains, in the primary assemblies of the people, and in the elective franchise.

367. By these means, in the presidential contest of 1832, Maine and New Hampshire were gained over, New York and New Jersey were wholly converted, and notwithstanding the loss of Kentucky and South Carolina, the President was reelected, by an overwhelming majority; and his nominee for the Vice Presidency, Mr. Van Buren, was also chosen. A most important change, too, was effected in the House of Representatives. That House, in the 21st Congress, consisted of 216 members. The vote on the bill for the renewal of the Bank Charter, was 109 to 85; vacancies and absentees 22. The census of 1830 gave to the 22d Congress 240 members; and the House resolved, in 1834, by a vote of 135 to 82, that, the Bank should not be rechartered. In 1832, there was a majority of 24 votes favourable to the Bank; and in 1834, a majority against it, of 53 votes. Supposing the 24 additional votes resulting from the census, to have been gained by ordinary party influence, it remains probable, that a change, greater than twice the majority, in favour of the Bank, had been effected, in the House, by presidential influence.

We might enter, minutely, into the modes by which this presidential influence has been exercised; but it must suffice,

now, to refer, generally, to the direct interference in elections by the United States officers; of which, instances are notorious in every district, and of which, the letters of the Fourth Auditor, (Amos Kendall) of the 28th April, 1832, and 28th September, 1833, frequently published in the daily journals, are flagrant instances to the perversion of funds in the operations of the post office department, and to the corruption of the public press.

The President received 219 votes out of 286, and Mr. Van Buren 189 votes.

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